ONGOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING OF TEACHING STAFF IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION, BASED ON COMMUNICATION, MULTIMEDIA AND E-LEARNING

A sustainable development of the education system in Romania and its integration in the European education system requires a significant quality improvement in undergraduate education system. This goal however can be achieved not only by using and promoting new technologies in the teaching and evaluation stages but by involving the teachers in an ongoing process to enhance of their professional teaching competences. Also, the objective can be reached by facilitating the access to other's experiences and good practices, exchanges regarding the use of modern educational tools and techniques/methods, based on IT&C, multimedia and e-Learning. As regards the betterment of professional training of the teaching staff acting in the undergraduate educational system, there are organized training sessions and professional development programmes, based on modern educational methods and techniques. The programmes are supported by technological evolutions, having as priority objectives not only training and developing role, personal and professional competencies, but also the development of competencies for the aimed area. In this context, Spiru Haret University implements ongoing training and professional development programmes for adults, which are addressed mainly to the undergraduate teaching staff. The programmes are focused on the development of specific areaoriented competencies and common competencies for using modern technological and methodological tools, as well as for managing the problems the Romanian education system is facing. The programmes are module-based, in an innovative approach, in a blended e-Learning format, using the technological infrastructure and the Blackboard Learning platform for granting a controlled access to participants to the learning, training and evaluation resources.